Conventionally, there has been known an image forming apparatus in which a toner image formed on an image carrier is transferred onto an intermediate transfer body and the toner image thus transferred onto the intermediate transfer body is transferred onto a recording material (e.g., see Patent Documents 1 and 2 listed below).
When the image forming apparatus thus arranged shows variations in charging amount of the toner image transferred onto the intermediate transfer body, the toner image may not be appropriately transferred from the intermediate transfer body onto the recording material.
In order to reduce variations in charging amount of a toner image transferred onto an intermediate transfer body, Patent Document 3 listed below discloses an image forming apparatus including pre-transfer charging means for charging a toner image having yet to be transferred from an intermediate transfer body onto a recording material.
Further, according to Patent Document 3, a second transfer belt for conveying a recording material and an electricity-removing charger for ridding the second transfer belt of residual charge are provided at a point of contact between the intermediate transfer body and a recording material. Further, in order to prevent printing misalignment from being caused by a recording material floating when a toner image is transferred from an intermediate transfer body onto the recording material, Patent Document 4 discloses an image forming apparatus including (i) a conveyer belt for conveying a recording material and (ii) a charging roller for charging the recording material and the conveyer belt so that the recording material and the conveyer belt electrostatically cling to each other.
However, the technique of Patent Document 3 requires a pre-transfer charging means for charging a toner image transferred onto an intermediate belt and an electricity-removing charger for ridding a second transfer belt of residual charge, and therefore undesirably causes an increase in size of the image forming apparatus.
Further, in order to more appropriately transfer a toner image onto a recording material in an image forming apparatus in which a toner image formed on an image carrier is transferred onto an intermediate transfer body and the toner image thus transferred onto the intermediate transfer body is transferred onto a recording material, the technique of Patent Document 3 and the technique of Patent Document 4 may be combined. However, such a combination also makes it necessary to provide two charging devices, and therefore undesirably causes an increase in size of the image forming apparatus. Note that the arrangement obtained by combining the technique of Patent Document 3 and the technique of Patent Document 4 is an arrangement devised by the inventor of the subject application, and is not a publicly known arrangement.
(Patent Document 1)
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application
Publication No. 92275/2001 (Tokukai 2001-92275; published on Apr. 6, 2001)
(Patent Document 2)
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 15947/1996 (Tokukaihei 8-15947; published on Jan. 19, 1996)
(Patent Document 3)
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 274892/1998 (Tokukaihei 10-274892; published on Oct. 13, 1998)
(Patent Document 4)
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 221798/2000 (Tokukai 2000-221798; published on Aug. 11, 2000)